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Long-term resident of Japan here with no particular expertise or insights on longevity or health. Something that has struck me recently are the government-led e

Long-term resident of Japan here with no particular expertise or insights on longevity or health. Something that has struck me recently are the government-led educational efforts focused on nutrition for infants and children. My daughter and one-year-old grandson live with me, and ever since he started eating solid food she has been feeding him exclusively homemade, vegetable-centric meals. When preparing the food, especially at first, she referred to guidelines for ri’nyū shoku (“weaning food”) in the Maternal and Child Health Handbook issued by the government for all babies [0, 1] as well as some cookbooks she bought. The emphasis of ri’nyū shoku guidance is on handmade, nonprocessed food; my daughter has yet to buy any commercial babyfood. She hasn't been able to have much interaction with other young parents (for obvious reasons), so I don't know how typical her approach to babyfood is. But my impression is that she is not unusual. For older children, the government promotes something called shokuiku (food and nutrition education, [2]) that is incorporated into the school curriculum and is coordinated with the food that children actually eat at school. (Most schoolchildren eat school-supplied hot lunches.) The specific guidelines for ri’nyū shoku and shokuiku seem to reflect both scientific research on nutrition and a nationalist nostalgia for traditional Japanese diet and eating customs. [0] https://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2010_04/259_265.pdf https://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2010_04/259_265.pd... [1] https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaih/27/2/27_121/_pdf https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaih/27/2/27_121/_pdf [2] https://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/tech_res/shokuiku.html https://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/tech_res/shokuiku.html

howlgarnish 6y ago
That all sounds very wholesome, but based on what I've seen, reality is pretty different. That commercial baby food you mentioned seems to avoid salt entirely and make up for it with gobs of sugar. Snacks for kids like tamago boro are little puffs of sugar and starch. I'll readily grant that the universal free school food is a huge improvement on the US swill, although this too has its share on unhealthy practices: mandating that everything served has to be eaten whether you're hungry or not or you like it or not (kids are regularly told that sukikirai, liking/hating foods, is not allowed), and the mandatory milk & milk bun for that sugar kick. At least whale meat has become too expensive to feature regularly anymore.
saiya-jin 6y ago
Well, I am far from a food snob but even for me, what you can often buy as baby food is bland and has some weird mix of ingredients (ie some are too oily, some have weird aftertaste). I am talking about french and swiss rather premium products, so not some supercheap crap for 3rd world countries done by likes of Nestle/Kraft. When you cook it yourself even with very little salt and reasonable spices for a baby, the result is so much better. We can see how much our little one enjoys cooked stuff vs bought ones, so we stopped quickly with those. It takes some time, but covid is actually helping with this particular thing right now. Thank god our kindergarden has proper chef who actually cooks and not just reheats frozen stuff from cheap retailers. Its a bit sad that even in 2021 we can't really manufacture en masse reasonably processed food that contains just the food ingredients and tastes at least reasonably.

howlgarnish 6y ago

That all sounds very wholesome, but based on what I've seen, reality is pretty different. That commercial baby food you mentioned seems to avoid salt entirely and make up for it with gobs of sugar. Snacks for kids like tamago boro are little puffs of sugar and starch. I'll readily grant that the universal free school food is a huge improvement on the US swill, although this too has its share on unhealthy practices: mandating that everything served has to be eaten whether you're hungry or not or you like it or not (kids are regularly told that sukikirai, liking/hating foods, is not allowed), and the mandatory milk & milk bun for that sugar kick. At least whale meat has become too expensive to feature regularly anymore.

saiya-jin 6y ago

Well, I am far from a food snob but even for me, what you can often buy as baby food is bland and has some weird mix of ingredients (ie some are too oily, some have weird aftertaste). I am talking about french and swiss rather premium products, so not some supercheap crap for 3rd world countries done by likes of Nestle/Kraft. When you cook it yourself even with very little salt and reasonable spices for a baby, the result is so much better. We can see how much our little one enjoys cooked stuff vs bought ones, so we stopped quickly with those. It takes some time, but covid is actually helping with this particular thing right now. Thank god our kindergarden has proper chef who actually cooks and not just reheats frozen stuff from cheap retailers. Its a bit sad that even in 2021 we can't really manufacture en masse reasonably processed food that contains just the food ingredients and tastes at least reasonably.